5 comments about An Hour To Kill: A True Story of Love, Murder, and Justice in a Small Southern Town (St. Martin's True Crime Library).

1. True crime is my genre; about the ONLY thing I read. And in many years of reading this genre, I have read many, many books whose setting was in the South, even the deep south Georgia, but I have NEVER run across authors who did such an excellent job (said tongue in cheek)of making the "characters" out to be such hillbillies. Living in a small, southern town myself, I can say this: sure, we have some odd sayings and our own dialect; but, come on, do you have to play on it? Even though I speak "the language" of these people, I still had a very difficult time reading it.
   
   And this has to be the only true crime book I've read to date that included photos, but not any clear photos of the victim or the accused. Readers are provided with a grainy photo atop her headstone, taken at a distance of the victim and one side view photo taken of the accused. But, hey, there is a clear photo of Mickey Spillane and his wife, Jane, for your enjoyment! Go figure!
   
   Throw in that this book plays on the fact that Crystal Faye Todd was murdered by her best friend Ken Register, but we're not given much background information on neither them nor their families; only that they had all been life long friends. Btw, how is that Ken Register was her best friend, but she had refused to date him and told her mother it was because he wanted sex all the time and smelled badly? Doesn't really sound like best friend material but, amazingly, Bonnie Faye Todd considers him as someone she can lean on and trust.
   
   However, if a reader can wade through all that mess, there is a good argument here for the conviction. It was based mainly on past actions of the defendant and primitive use of DNA. Quite frankly, the jury, in my opinion, didn't have enough evidence to convict but read it and form your own opinion. Just plan on having Jethro's voice in your head while you do!



2. An Hour To Kill is the story of a brutal murder in a small South Carolina town. As an avid reader of true crime, I have mixed feelings about the book. There are a number of negatives: The center picture section is weak. There is NO decent picture of the victim, Crystal Todd, merely a tiny blurred picture of her on her tombstone. As she was a high school senior, it should have been relatively easy to at least get a yearbook picture. Also, for no other possible reason than to fill up the section there are pictures of Mickey Spillane and his wife! These people really have nothing to do with the book, except as an afterthought, not even appearing in the book until the last few pages.
   There is no depth given to the main characters, Ken Register and Crystal Todd. Due to a lack of information or interest, the authors present them as little more than props around which to base the story of the arrest and trial. This is especially poorly done with Crystal. She is the victim of a brutal murder and we learn virtually nothing about her except that her mother loved her.
   There does not seem to have been much in depth research in the writing of this book, which would have helped as the crime is not in itself really that interesting or unusual, except for its sheer brutality,
   
   This book could have been a total true crime trasher due to the serious faults listed above, but it is saved by the authors' narrative abilities.
   The writing is crisp and clean. It is for the most part reportorial in nature, and avoids the trap fallen into by lesser true-crime writers, of feeling that they must express their own opinions of the crime. Consequently they do not impose their own personalities on the story, which in my opinion is almost always undesirable in a true crime book. The writers, Hudson and Hills, move the story along briskly and professionally. Ultimately, An Hour To Kill is an easy read, but could have been much deeper.



3. I purchased this book because of the strong reviews. Perhaps the other reviewers have not read a lot of true crime, because there was nothing special about this. Basically, it was a newspaper article extended with a few more facts to make a book. The story is horrifying, but you never really learn much about the people.



4. Oh My Goodnes!!! I lived down in Conway SC. when this all happened and as I read the book I can remember this as if it was yesterday. He is very true and down to the point with every detail. To think that Mr. Registar offered all of his time and help to locate Crystal Faye Todd (even helped at the funeral, sat with her mother, etc.) and he knew the entire time where she was and what happen. I cannot even explain how real and true this book is. He is a great author and if you can ever get your hands on any of his other books I would recommend it.



5. I bought this book based on all of the five-star reviews and the abject raves from other readers, and am I ever disappointed. It's a run-of-the-mill murder "mystery" that is solved fairly quickly, with an uninteresting departure of focusing on the wrong guy. The "boy next door" stabbed to death 17-year-old Crystal Faye Todd in a monstrous frenzy. But nobody is prepared to believe when DNA points to teen who has given comfort and a shoulder to lean on to Crystal's mother. The murderer's parents believe the police have done a "frame job," and come across as almost comically ignorant. Get ready to read a lot of "it weren't a good thing." An Hour to Kill is a compelling read, but it cannot compare to classics in the "true crime" genre.

3 comments about How the Cold War Began: The Igor Gouzenko Affair and the Hunt for Soviet Spies.

1. I looked this book over at Borders and decided not to buy it when I saw that the author claims that the jury is still out on whether Alger Hiss was a Soviet spy. Frankly, it's my opinion that the Venona decrypts of KGB messages during the World War II era have pretty much settled this issue. Hiss was a spy and so were a number of other people that Ms. Knight seems to assert "reasonable doubt on."
   
   Also, the assertion by her that the Gouzenko case marred amicable relations with the Soviet Union after World War II is ludicrous. To use Marxist terminology, that alliance collapsed of its own contradictions (democracies allied with expansionist totalitarian regime). Also, setting aside the Hiss and Harry Dexter White Cases, Venona indisputably proves that the Soviets were running an extremely aggressive intelligence collection program in the West of a scope and nature that is not normally associated with friendly intent.
   
   So I would give this a pass, but if you have to read it, you should also check out a book called "the FBI-KGB War" by Robert Lamphere. Lamphere was an FBI agent deeply involved in many of the cases that this book discusses and in my opinion, he has a lot clearer view of reality than Ms. Knight.



2. (had to enter this in "kid's review" as i don't want to sign up for an amazon account (sorry, amazon!)
   Picked this up as it hit the store this week because of my fascination with the cold war era and the red scare. The case of Gouzenko, who defected in Canada, is riveting. I learned about his case in a history class, but had never read the details of this young man who decided to defect - setting off the most unbelievable chain of events. Knight's research is meticulous, and the case she builds about the lives ruined in the spy hunt makes this book a must for anyone who likes history and a good spy story. I finished it in two days, and it's still making me think....



3. The book is a gripping account of espionage investigation and the political fallout from Igor Gouzenko's defection to Canada in September 1945. Knight argues that the Gouzenko case triggered a change of public perception of the Soviet Union, from that of a wartime ally to that of a deceitful enemy. This change of perception, and the political outrage in the West over Soviet espionage, precipitated anti-communist hysteria in the US and became the opening act of the drama of the Cold War.
   
   Knight's analysis is certainly interesting, placing her clearly in the ranks of revisionist historians (those inclined to blame the US for the Cold War). Her research is very impressive; recently declassified Canadian materials are consulted at great length. On the other hand, the Russian side of the story is inadequately covered. Knight resorts here to a few articles or interviews by former Soviet intelligence officers, omitting archival evidence altogether.
   
   Granted, as she quickly points out in the beginning, archival access in Russia remains problematic, and Gouzenko files at the GRU archive are certainly out of reach. But other archives (e.g. the Foreign Ministry, RGASPI) are more or less open to researchers, and Knight's omissions are regrettable.
   
   As matters stand, only half Gouzenko's story is told in the book; the other - the Russian half - still remains to be written. Still, Gouzenko's life and times are examined in great detail. Knight shows something of an ambivalent feeling towards Gouzenko's personality, admiring him for courage but censuring him for egoism and arrogance.
   
   The one important problem that is barely mentioned in the book is Stalin's policy in the early years of the Cold War. Only once does Knight offer her opinion about the underlying motivations of Soviet foreign policy - i.e. that Stalin wanted to cooperate with the West *before* Hiroshima - but this important observation is not buttressed by any evidence, except for a reference to the Zubok/Pleshakov book (Inside the Kremlin's Cold War).
   
   And yet, Stalin's side of the story is exceptionally important, for if he ruled out cooperation with the West in the aftermath of Hiroshima, then did it really matter what Gouzenko did, or what Washington witch-hunters thought - the Cold War had already begun! The book's title is "How the Cold War began", but certainly without a greater examination of the Soviet side of the Cold War, we can never really tell how it all began. Nevertheless, it is an interesting book, well worth reading, well-written, full of insights and pertinent information.
   
   Also, towards the end the author defends Alger Hiss (arguing that he was not a Soviet spy), though she does not really offer much evidence to undermine the well-known public prejudice to the contrary.

1 comments about Seventeen Real Girls, Real-Life Stories: True Love (Seventeen Real Girls, Real-Life Stories).

1. This is book was sad, touching, and funny all at the same time! Real girls shared their real life stories about love. In my opinion, I thought it was a great Christmas gift! To girls out there, I'd read it!

5 comments about The Octopus: Secret Government and the Death of Danny Casolaro.

1. This book is interesting, but many questions remain unanswered. In this kind of affairs, the number of protagonists, places and sub-affairs -the whole surrounded by a thick haze of secrecy and deceit- gives a headache...and is somehow frightening...but in the same time I think we feel unsatisfied. We'd like to go farther and deeper. Is it a kind of addiction ?



2. If you read a good newspaper, watch the network news, get a weekly news periodical (all of which I do) and think you pretty well understand American politics (as I did) then you REALLY REALLY need to read this book. I have come to believe that one cannot possibly understand how this country operates by getting one's information from the mainstream press.
   
   If you find some of the information a little hard to believe and you are tenmpted to dismiss it, you might want to try to do a search on the relevant topic. You will almost always find supporting information.



3. This book begins with an investigation into an attempt to corner the market for law enforcement software and ends with the death of Princess Diana and 9/11. One needs a formidably extended elastic to find a link between the latter events and the death of Dany Casolaro.
   It is a very meager extension of L. Fletcher Prouty's book `The Secret Team'.
   The only interesting pages are those explaining the PROMIS program (and backdoor software) and its ability to track movements of vast numbers of people around the world by tapping into the computers of, e.g., utility and credit card companies. Example: A sudden change in water consumption could mean that a person has `guests'.
   
   I cannot recommend this book.



4. I read this book about a week ago and I have to say that although it was quite informative, it left many holes. Unfortunately, we may never know exactly what happened to Danny Casolaro because powers that be will prevent it from becoming public knowledge. The book was mostly a gripping tale about his life as he tried to expose connections between the CIA, drug trafficking, hollywood, and weapons procurement in a tax free Indian reservation. The book lost me when they added a chapter about Lady Diana which had absolutely no connection to his death other than the CIA knowing about it. Still if you want some forbidden knowledge, I'd recommend the book anyway. It is a fairly quick and easy read.



5. Excellent book that uncovers the truth about who
   killed young Danny Casolaro and more importantly,
   why! Mr. Norman and Mr. Skolnick were both on RFA
   several times and the reader sould also look for
   Skolnick's books here on amazon as well! Pick Up
   on any that talk about the Nugan-Hand Bank, BCCI
   or the Inslaw case!

5 comments about A Criminal and an Irishman: The Inside Story of the Boston Mob-IRA Connection.

1. I had high hopes for this one, in light of the pros working with Nee. It just seemed to degenerate into a political polemic, however, about half way through; almost like two mini-books with stange pacing by the editor. Without trying to, I found myself mentally substituting "Al Qaeda" for IRA, trying unsuccessfully to differentiate in my mind why these guys were substantially different from middle eastern "freedom fighters". Left unexamined was the tragic way his family started him on his path in life, making him a really angry guy in general. Despite service in the USMC, he doesn't refer to himself as an American throughout most of the book. I really wish I could have liked this one more but I know plenty of guys like Nee who made better life choices.



2. This is a solidly wriiten book on criminal activity in Boston and arms smuggling to Ireland. The author pulls no punches about what he did and offers no apologies to the lifestyle he choose. You can either love or hate him but he seems to be a respectable guy from this book. The co-authors do a pretty good job putting his voice into a readable manner.



3. This is the best book in its class. Nee is everything that Mac, Weeks, Shea aren't. He is truthful and honest. Nee's story puts it all into perspective and negates all the other fiction. Nee's story is the one that you want to hear about. Recounting the events of his life, that he remembers. The South Boston gang war chapter is outstanding, and the valhalla chapter is almost a "how to smuggle" for those of you interested. Nee's story is both moving and compelling, with his sentiment towards his brother and his belief in the IRA as opressed people. Nee's image of Whitey Bulger is outstanding. This is a definite good read. buy it.



4. A Criminal and an Irishman is a terrific read, particularly for anyone interested in American connections to the defiance of British rule and oppression in Northern Ireland. Highly informative and entertaining, the novel also provides a great deal of excitement in its recounting of its anti-hero's adventures as a criminal and a gun runner for Irish freedom fighters. Pleasantly, it avoids glorifying crime, yet it does provide insight into why Pat Nee made the choices he did, as both a criminal and an Irishman. Further, it provides facts too often ignored in the US press about Britain's continuing atrocities against Nationalists and Catholics in Northern Ireland. Anyone who wants to know the truth about what goes on in that enemy-occupied country would do well to read this book.



5. Well, let's see....I bought this book in the hopes of learning about some type of connection with the P.I.R.A and the Southie Irish "mob". First, I had to get through the first ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY FIVE PAGES which had to do with Mr. Nee's life prior to his involvement.
   
   If you couple that with the forty or so pages that dealt with the actual boat trip, which Mr. Nee wasn't even privy to, then you have about TWENTY pages actually dealing with the topic of "The Inside Story of the Boston Mob-IRA Connection".
   
   Listen, Mr. Nee, I understand you not wanting to tell the "whole" story about what you did as I'm sure the statute of limitations hasn't run out. But don't spout off about some huge connection between the Irish "mob" and the P.I.R.A if you don't have much to say. You wrote more about Jimmy Bulger than you did about anything else!
   
   The only saving grace of the book was that you felt like you were bellied up to the bar in some run down gin mill swapping stories with ole' Patty himself. It's an easy read, completed it in a night, but only pick it up if you're interested in one-sided war stories about criminals who victimized Southie.

5 comments about Mafia Kingfish: Carlos Marcello and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy.

1. This book is dated,but I'm not so sure that any other book on the subject is better.
   Mr. Davis exposes the numerous links the Marcello family had to other key conspirators in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.Lee Harvey Oswald,Jack Ruby,and David Ferrie all knew each other and had Marcello family connections.
   
   Another highlight of this book is the contrast of the New Orleans mafia and other families.They operated quite differently than say,the New York or Chicago mob.The culture of that area was much like Sicily.
   
   Mr. Davis gives details on the extent of the corruption and political power enjoyed by Carlos Marcello.The transcripts of recorded conversations from the sting by the FBI reveal a lot regarding who was bought.Some major political figures are mentioned.
   
   The details of Carlos Marcello's deportation clarify the animosity between the mafia and the Kennedy brothers.The egos on both sides of the law were factors in the eventual assassination.
   
   The monumental part that J. Edgar Hoover played in the coverup and possible motivation for doing that are explained very well in this book.
   
   In the end of the book Mr. Davis briefly covers some of the books that were contemporary with his.
   The only thing he doesn't do is name the actual trigger men.
   This book is available and inexpensive.It's a book I highly recommend for anyone wanting to study the assassination of JFK.



2. I can practically read anything on the Mafia . . . except this book. I could barely finish it. It was so boring. The first 50 pages were good. It was actually focused on late Louisiana Mafia boss Carlos Marcello. Then, it happened. Nonstop writing on the assassination of President Kennedy. Again, it is nonstop and the author continually asks the reader questions that I don't think he ever conclusively answered. (By the way, I have never seen some many questions presented to the reader before in ANY book; my guess would be a couple hundred questions the author poses to his readers.)
   
   I swear about 500 pages is just going over the same points in the assassination again and again. Oswald knew this guy. This guy knew this guy. Jack Ruby knew this guy. All these connections go back to the Marcello organization. I GET IT! ENOUGH!
   
   You read about a page and half on Marcello and you think, yes, he's finally back on track. He's actually writing about Marcello now. But no, all of the sudden it gets back to the Kennedy Assassination. I have rarely rolled by eyes while reading a book except for this one -- and I am continually rolling my eyes. Not because the author states that Marcello was probably involved in the Kennedy Assassination, but because he has to hammer his points over and over again and again (nonstop).
   
   Now, if you are looking for a book on the Kennedy Assassination, you got it here. But if you are looking for a book about Carlos Marcello, then skip it because you are just going to get mad with the author barely touching on Marcello past the first 50 pages without his throwing in some Kennedy Assassination angle.
   
   This should not be called "Mafia Kingfish: Carlos Marcello and the Assassination of President Kennedy." It should be called "The Assassination of President Kennedy: The Assassination and Some Mob Boss Named Carlos Marcello." Very little is about Carlos Marcello and his secretive organization. It's all about the Kennedy Assassination and Marcello's possible connection to it.
   
   The last part of the book is on the FBI operations in the late 1970s that finally brought Carlos Marcello down. But it's only about 50 or so pages long, too. In short, there is maybe a hundred or so pages dealing with Carlos Marcello, and what you have left is the author trying to link the Marcello organization to the President's assassination, and nailing his one-tracked hammer on the same points time after time, page after page.
   
   What a waste! Had this book been nearly 700 pages on Carlos Marcello and his organization it would have been perhaps one of the best, groundbreaking books on the underworld in the history of the American Mafia being there is very little actually known about the man and his organization other than the basics. Instead, we get a 100 pages on Marcello and 600 pages on his possible connection to the assassination of President Kennedy.
   
   Sorry if I hammered my point over and over again about this book, but I was giving you a preview of what you will experience if you buy and read this book. As the mob would say, "Give it a pass."



3. I'm exhausted. By the time I reached the finish I'd forgotten the start. Look, Great facts, alot of research, but I found this book mentally fatiguing. If you are in to conspiracies get it. Meanwhile, I'm going to go lay and rest my head.



4. I think this book is spectacular! The author did some deep and complete research! I was impressed, plus I live in New Orleans and most of the action takes place in NOLA! There is even some speculation that The Mob played a role in the death of MLK and RFK! Read this book,you won't be
   disappointed! Read Dr. Mary's Monkey too and you won't ever need to read another JFK book again!



5. davis is a very good writer who does alot of research before he writes his books.the way he writes and divides his book into many smaller chap ters,really helps those of us who do not have time to sit and read for a long period of time.very interesting about marcello and his role in history!

5 comments about America's Dumbest Criminals: Wild and Weird Stories of Fumbling Felons, Clumsy Crooks, and Ridiculous Robbers.

1. This book delivers what it promises, but I'm not sure that it promises anything special.
   
   It is essentially a collection of humorous cop stories, told to the authors by policemen who, by dint of their occupation, always seem to have an amusing anecdote or two.
   
   Most of the 100 stories are amusing, a few are very funny, and a fair number just fall flat. While browsing through this book is good for a chuckle, I think you could probably get the same exact chuckle by browsing through the internet for similar subject matter.
   
   Even though this is a light-hearted book that is more concerned with entertaining the reader than making a statement, I still couldn't help but be bothered by the politics of the authors, and even more so by the brashness with which they assert those politics.
   
   The introduction relates an anecdote about the authors trying to get the members of a police station to work with them. They explain to the police chief that they think that criminals are glorified in shows like COPS. I had to reread this to make sure I had understood it correctly. COPS glamorizes criminals? In my experience, COPS usually makes criminals look subhuman. Anyhow, the police chief agrees to work with the authors on the condition that they make the criminals look like "coldhearted dumbasses," and show the police force as being "professional at all times." I was shocked to hear that the authors were basically agreeing to cover up any professional misconduct they encountered, and to make the criminals look as bad as possible. And they were bragging about this bargain in the introduction!
   
   Looked at in this light, some of the stories seem a little sinister. The last one in the book tells about an escaped convict who was attempting to hide from a search party. The convict mistakenly thinks he is backing into a hog-shed, when in reality he is backing through a single wall, and the surrounding policemen come up on his rear end poking into the air, with the convict apparently thinking he is hidden from view. There's a quote from a cop that says they "didn't know whether to turn the dogs loose on him, read him his rights, or just give him a good swift kick." Supposedly, they read him his rights, but given the deal that the authors made in the beginning, why should the reader assume that the man wasn't subjected to either of the other two (highly illegal) options?
   
   This is just one of many examples of the "punchline" being that an apprehended suspect gets physically hurt in some way. In one case, after a man (nonviolent offender) is taken into custody and handcuffed, a couple of dogs attack him, biting him several times before the arresting officer could drive the dogs off. The authors write that this is a stellar example of taking a bite out of crime. Har he har har!
   
   Joking about physically abusing a prisoner just isn't that funny to me, and it would be even less funny to the people who are facing long jail terms as a result of their crimes. Just because a person has been convicted of a crime and is paying the price doesn't mean that they deserve our ridicule, especially not mean-spirited ridicule that is specifically designed to make them look like coldhearted dumbasses.
   
   Those political objections aside, this book is somewhat amusing to flip through, but as I said, you could find the same type of material on the web for free.



2. I never cease to be amazed by how stupid some people can be. These stories literally had me laughing so hard that I dropped the book on the floor. I've read several different collections about dumb criminals but this one is by far the best. This book had me cracking up. If you have not yet read this book, pick up a copy because it is well worth it!



3. Perhaps the problem is in the presentation. Stories like these are better told by a witty reporter than printed in a book. While many of the stories were entertaining, I felt like many of them fell flat. Some of the stories were mere coincidences that lacked humor. Others just did not seem to fit under the title of the book. An undercover cop suckering a drug dealer is only amusing so many times.
   
   I did gain some enjoyment from this book. Because many of the stories are based in the Chicago area, the proximity made that stories more relevant to me. Aside from these stories, I could have lived without this book.



4. Americas dumbest criminals is full of stupid laughter!It has a bunch of little stories put together in one book!One of my favorite ones is about a guy that goes into a bank and tries to rob it but the bank calls the police and the guy starts running away from the police but they still caught him because he was robbing the bank at night and he was wearing light up shoes so the police could see him running!



5. AMERICAN'S DUMBEST CRIMINALS. . . is laugh aloud funny! It's a great book to pick up when you have only a short time to read! It was the perfect gift for my husband's birthday; good for me, too, as I read it over his shoulder.

5 comments about To Die For: The Shocking True Story of Serial Killer Dana Sue Gray.

1. Very good book, though in the end you still wonder what the real motives of this Dana Gray were for those appaling killings of elderly women. Is she a total psychopat? If so, you don't get that conclusion out of this book.



2. Braidhill's book is filled with interesting tidbits about Dana's life and terrible crimes, and it flows fairly well. I learned a lot about police interrogations too! But there are places where it could be better. I noticed LOTS of errors that should have been caught by an editor, but its still pretty good all-in-all. I only gave it 3 stars because its just not a page-turner, although I DID finish it so it couldn't be all that bad! Great for a distraction and to learn about serial killer's BIZARRE minds.



3. In the hands of a better author, the story of a brutal female serial killer with a heart of black evil might have been a very interesting read; however, this True Crime novel was nothing "to die for."
   
   Dana Sue Gray viciously murdered 3 elderly women in one month and attempted to murder a fourth, who lived to identify her. Although the murderess later claimed periods of amnesia and an overwhelming sense of depersonalization during and after the murders, Dana Sue Gray was able to deftly sort through credit cards, cash, and checkbooks with the speed and accuracy of a financial advisor and spend thousands of dollars within one hour of a killing.
   
   Once Ms. Gray is arrested, however, TO DIE FOR takes a spiraling tailspin into the abyssmal and the ordinary. Relying heavily on verbatim police interrogation records, the book slows considerably. When Ms. Gray is moved into protective custody while awating trial, there are endless chapters detailing the repetitious, histrionic, and manipulative letters Dana mailed to family members, friends, and other imagined supporters. In effect, this portion of the book could have been easily reduced by 40 pages without losing any real content.
   
   In addition to the problems already addressed, this book was filled with typographical errors and editing mistakes. I counted in excess of 20 typographical errors and found contradictory information about a single event printed on pages 67 and 286. On page 67, it is written that after attempting to murder Dorinda Hawkins, "Dana took $5 dollars out of Dorinda's purse, leaving a $20 bill, used the cash register key to take $25 from the cash drawer and walked out." Yet, on page 286 it is noted, "Dana... had fled with $20 dollars from Dorinda's purse and $25 from the cash register." A simple fact check and a reasonably good editor could have, and certainly should have, noticed this error.
   
   For experienced, "die hard" True Crime fans everywhere, your money would be better spent elsewhere. I read True Crime almost exclusively and I know what I like... TO DIE FOR does not even come close.



4. The quality of the writing is average, though the story/case is interesting. That is perhaps my biggest gripe. The word choice, the description, etc., are not as strong and captivating as that of other authors (Edna Buchanan, Ann Rule, M. William Phelps, etc.) The book is still worth reading though, and sheds inside into the police handling and media coverage of a female serial killer vs. a male one...



5. If you are a reader of Ann Rule's and/or Kathryn Casey's books, this one will be a huge disappointment. The story of Dana Sue Gray is interesting. How an extreme need to shop would motivate this young woman to kill elderly women, is fascinating. But the writer does a poor job in explaining most of the questions one has about a female serial killer.
   
   The books starts very slowly and is so redundant. The author goes over the same material several times, and jumps around in the story so that it becomes confusing. And like many crime writers, he seems to think readers are more interested in the law enforcement officials than in the subject of the book. I would rather read about the background of the subject and don't necessarily want to know so much about the investigators.
   
   The author moves quickly over some of the murders, then backtracks later to describe them in more detail. He waits until the last 1/3 of the book before he delves into the childhood, upbringing, and character of Dana Sue Gray. At that point, the book becomes more interesting and easier to read, but that section is way too short compared to the amount of time he spent on the investigators. It's almost as if he just stuck the chapter together the same way he wrote them, with no editing involved.
   
   The author leaves the reader wondering if another book has been written by a different author. One that may explain more about Dana's motives and whether it was remorse that changed her plea to guilty or if it was to avoid the death penalty. A lot of questions go unanswered. However, her life behind bars is detailed and I appreciated that glimpse into prison life. How female prisoners create beauty products out of the sparse materials they have access to, is quite imaginative!
   
   As a prolific crime story reader, this one is at the bottom of my list. I also ordered several other books at the same time and after reading this one, was happy to delve into a Kathryn Casey book where the story flows, is about the main subject with only minor references to law enforcement, and tries to understand/explain what motivates the killer.
   
   There are so many other great books about true crime. I would skip this one or try to find it at the library. Don't waste your money.

5 comments about But He Was Good to His Mother : The Lives and Crimes of Jewish Gangsters.

1. Prompt delivery of my order. Would recommend this seller. Book as advertised.



2. A good book for casual crime readers who don't need heavy details, but amazingly inaccurate in several areas. Seems to repeat old myths told in other books rather than do research.
   
   ie Joe the Boss's hit team did not include Anastasia, Adonis or even Siegel
   
   or
   
   Dutch Schultz was not shot in the bathroom or even shot by Charlie Workman. The caliber of the bullet found in Dutch matched those used by his men, not those who had shot his men down. The more accurate tale is that he was mistaken;y shot by his own men while trading fire with Lepke's boys. (The bathroom was directly behind the doorway where Workman had to be shooting from)



3. Robert Rockaway provides an engaging portrait of the warm, loving relationships many of the most notorious Jewish mobsters in the history of U.S. crime enjoyed with their girl friends, wives, children, and other family members, especially mothers. The emotions the wicked ways of these boys provoked from their loved ones ranged from devastation and shame to pride, arrogance, and defensiveness. While a lot of this material is old hat, an equal amount is not, and I generally found this book to be light and enjoyable.



4. The title of this book comes from the fact that Jewish gangsters took a very protective attitude towards their mothers, and did everything they could to keep them and other family members in the dark regarding their unsavory behavior. Gangsters may have led immoral lives regarding their so-called profession, but would turn weepy when the subject of their mother came up. Perhaps this was due in part to the fact they knew their mother would be disappointed in them. Unlike those in the mafia the offspring of Jewish gangsters did not intermarry with others so their profession did not extend beyond one generation. I found the book to be well written, and what I especially liked was the number of photos of gangsters I have read about in previous books, but of which photos have been scanty. Gyp the Blood (square name Harry Horowitz), Irving Wexler (Waxey Gordon), Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro, Abe Reles, Harry Strauss (Pittsburgh Phil), and a family photo of the Purple Gang were all included in addition to photos of Dutch Schultz (square name Arthur Flegenheimer), Jack Guzik, Lepke Buchalter, and numerous others. This book is a worthy addition to my gangster library, and you can purloin this book for only $10.00.



5. The author's writing style successfully avoids smooth flow and continuity. He skips around, and maintains superficiality throughout. No interest was generated, and it was hard to keep track of the individuals chronicled in the book.Definitely not a good read. There was no eagerness to find out what was next, rather eagerness to finish. I honestly could not remember one fact from it. Even the photos were not anywhere in the book near where the subjects were discussed.

5 comments about My Dark Places.

1. To better understand (if not enjoy) My Dark Places, I would suggest that you need to have read at least one Ellroy novel. It will help to put this semi-autobiography into perspective, and if you're already an Ellroy fan it will make a great deal more sense. It's an extraordinary piece of work, so ruthlessly exhaustive in its detail that I for one felt almost physically tired by the time I had finished. Not tired of reading the book itself, but tired just to think of the incredible lengths Ellroy went to in order to track down his mother's killer some 37/38 years after her death in 1958. Although the book is dedicated to Ellroy's wife Helen, it could just as well have been dedicated to Bill Stoner, the retired ex-detective who committed himself absolutely to the cause of helping Ellroy in his unusual quest - but this might be an opportunity to mention two of Ellroy's greatest works American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand, one a sequel to the other; the latter was in fact dedicated to Stoner and deservedly so.
   
   In one sense I feel that this book was written almost exclusively for Ellroy himself to read, I'm sure that he had little commercial incentive or reasoning to do it. Yet the raw, body-pummelling honesty of the book from start to finish makes for fascinating reading for those who, like myself, have ever wondered what made Ellroy write in the way he does in such classics as The Black Dahlia or The Big Nowhere. I have to admit that the short sentence style adopted in My Dark Places does irritate at times, in spite of the fact that the writer explains this after the end of the story. It gave me the impression that what we are reading, much of the time, are either his own or Stoner's investigatory notes and copied to the page verbatim.
   
   The lasting impression though is the tireless and absolutely relentless commitment to the cause of a murder investigation. Although there are only a handful of characters who appear in the book throughout, there are nevertheless several hundred others who are mentioned during its course, the majority of whom are either related to the victim or are suspected of being so - and ALL of these suspects, no matter how faint their association to the crime might seem, have to be contacted and interviewed. I guess that this gives us an insight into the mechanics of any murder investigation, and how different it is to the relative glamourisation we see on the TV. This book covers, in finite detail, the day-to-day work of a real-life murder investigation, one which was spread well over a year and one which covered every single day of that period. The huge difference of course is that the victim is the investigator's mother, and the death took place most of his life ago.
   
   After closing the last page, I felt that while I didn't exactly understand Ellroy as a personality that much better, I certainly knew him and his motives as a writer more than I had. My Dark Places strips away much of the mystery surrounding him and helps to explain what made him a self-styled specialist of 1950's LA crime fiction; he was a victim of the real thing.



2. James Ellroy is undeniably a great writer, and the story he tells here --the unsolved murder of his mother when he was ten years old, and how the fact marked (and almost ruined) his life-- is an amazing one. But the book suffers, in my opinion, from a lack of editing. You can't blame Ellroy for believing that every single detail about the case, and his struggle to solve it, is fascinating, but the truth is, the writing suffers from too many details--some of them, irrelevant and even boring. A good editor could have transformed great but raw material into what it should have been: a masterpiece.



3. My Dark Places stands alone among the most naked, poignant, exquisite writing I have ever encountered. Anyone unmoved by either its subject matter or the sheer beauty of Ellroy's prose must be clinically dead.



4. I've been a fan of James Ellroy since reading "The Black Dahlia" years ago. He blended violent death and raw eroticism, threw in a few dashes of creative nonfiction, and came up with a fast-paced noir tale about a detective who becomes obsessed with the murdered Elizabeth Short, aka The Black Dahlia. The protagonist doesn't content himself with merely trying to unmask her killer- he pursues Short as if she were yet attainable, loving her more in death than he ever could have in life.
   
   "My Dark Places" evolved from an article Ellroy wrote for GQ Magazine after viewing the homicide file of his mother, Geneva 'Jean' Ellroy, whose strangled remains were dumped in a seedy L.A. suburb in 1958. The killer was never found and the case was closed, but the ten year old Ellroy was left with a lifelong fascination with the beautiful and the slaughtered. After battling through a personal hell of drug and alcohol addiction, he made unconscious attempts to reconnect with his mother by writing provocative and darkly loving crime fiction whose primary love interests were dead women.
   
   Ellroy teamed up with veteran homicide detective Bill Stoner and re-opened the thirty year old case case. They pored over yellowing files and battered evidence boxes, and interviewed some of the last people to see Geneva Ellroy alive. Ellroy recounts their efforts in a suspenseful manner that would do justice to a good piece of detective fiction. While their investigation does not result in the finding of her killer, Ellroy clearly experiences a psychic catharsis in the process, and the reader witnesses a documented softening of a child's hostility into an adult son's love for a mother he never truly knew.



5. As an Ellroy fan, I, too, was annoyed at his not telling us the full story of how he "turned his life around" -- but then I recalled his mentions of 12-Step groups. In NA, AA, CA and all the rest, "A" stands for "anonymous." Mr. Ellroy might choose to disclose how 12-Step recovery groups helped him (members can compromise their own anonymity), but a careful reader will notice he doesn't do much beyond making mention of his involvement in such groups, tells a couple of anecdotes and that's it. He's honor-bound not to provide any details that might compromise the anonymity of another member (e.g, his sponsor, those other group members who helped him through the inevitable crises). Bill Wilson (whose last name we NOW know), one of the founders of AA, always emphasized that the welfare of the group was more important than the self-interest of any of its members. Fortunately, Ellroy was doing pretty well by the time he wrote This memoir, so (I'm surmising) he didn't have to fight with his conscience over including more specific information to boost sales. Consequently, we really can't expect a clear picture of recovery aided by 12-Step groups. I definitely picked up that Ellroy is very much aware that his involvement in such groups saved his life. I don't know the man personally, but by the time he wrote this, we had become a facile enough writer to "dance around" the subject of those lost years. Unwilling to fictionalize a memoir -- and he does strike me an a honorable man -- he did the best he could. The result? A somewhat choppy book that looks as if it could use surgical editing (to "track" the story properly). This book clearly comes from deep within Ellroy -- and it's a book he HAD to write. Try to temper your judgment of its style and structure with that knowledge and, I hope, compassionate understanding of the author.